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It is not unusual these days, to hear “School vouchers are a done deal!” Citing the election of Gov. Bill Lee, a recent guest columnist said, “make no mistake, school vouchers are almost certainly coming to Tennessee in the near future.”

But, facts suggest this conclusion is premature. Bill Haslam, a very popular governor, supported the passage of private school vouchers without success in both terms as governor.

Despite the best efforts of several powerful legislators and hundreds of thousands of dollars spent by out-of-state lobbyists, Tennessee citizens have defeated school vouchers for six consecutive years.

There are good, solid reasons for this failure that challenge the columnist's assertion.

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In this file photo, Molly Handler protests outside the House chambers before the voucher bill came to the floor at the Tennessee State Capitol Feb. 11, 2016, in Nashville, Tenn. Vouchers have been a hotly contested issue in Tennessee.(Photo11: Samuel M. Simpkins/The Tennessean)

Vouchers are a threat to rural communities

Although urban legislators have been divided on the question of private school vouchers, rural legislators have voted them down, realizing that vouchers offer no benefit to rural districts, but instead endanger their already fragile budgets.

Indiana’s voucher program, for example, has drawn rural students into religious schools to the detriment of small, vulnerable districts. Only 15 children in Richland-Bean Blossom attendance district used vouchers in the 2013-2014 school year, soon after Indiana passed voucher legislation in 2011.

By 2016-2017 that number had increased to 41. Result? $200,000 less in revenue for Richland-Bean Blossom, sparking talk of closing schools.

From 2011 through the 2016-2017 school year, the voucher program cost Indiana taxpayers $516.5 million.

This kind of school “choice” (so called) will lead to devastating cuts for rural schools. One hears, ”the money follows the child…” That may be true, but when a child leaves a public school, the school building still has to be maintained, the heat has to stay on, the teachers have to be paid, janitors, kitchen workers, and crossing guards have to be paid - but the money has followed the child out the door.

The significance of this drain on public school dollars cannot be over-stated. Fortunately, rural legislators in Tennessee, aware of the danger they pose to their constituents’ children, have so far voted to oppose their enactment.

Vouchers won't improve outcomes for students

To make matters worse, vouchers often fail to improve outcomes for the students. Rigorous studies in three different states, Louisiana, Indiana and Ohio, (as well as the District of Columbia, the only federally funded voucher program), have shown that students who use vouchers to attend private schools fare worse academically than their closely matched peers attending public schools.

To a still more basic point, vouchers chip away at our Founding Fathers’ wise safeguards to keep government hands out of our religious institutions.

The First Amendment is inevitably diluted when public taxes are siphoned out of public schools, and over to religious schools. I, and many other people of faith, are uncomfortable thinking that our taxes might be diverted to support schools whose purpose is to convert kids to whatever persuasion of faith a school advances... any religious schools; Protestant, Catholic, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, you name it.

To put it simply, you shouldn’t have to support my religious school, and I shouldn’t have to support yours.

None of this is a repudiation of religious schools. Almost all of us defend them. They too are part of our religious liberty.

Stop taking funds from public schools

But, vouchers, in whatever repackaged forms they are proposed — “education savings accounts,” “individualized education accounts,” “opportunity scholarships,” “tuition tax credits,” whatever they are called, and however they are advocated, — will unavoidably wreak havoc on public education in Tennessee.

Our public schools are already starving for funds and parental support. So, those of us who support our public schools, including the newly launched “Pastors for Tennessee Children,” will be at the Capitol fighting to protect these schools, hoping to – again – send vouchers back to the “education reform” think tanks that are trying to take funds from the pockets of our public schools.

In the end, what can be more important for both our children and our communities, than working together to offer top quality public schools, equipped and taught to serve the needs of every child?

Vouchers are one more threat to that service so essential to the life blood of our beloved state, and nation.

A Leon County sheriff's deputy in Florida shoots a family's dog in its own yard while visiting without telling family members to just put him up or on a leash. The cartoonist's homepage, tallahassee.com/opinion Nathan Archer, Tallahassee Democrat

The farm bill, which included stricter work requirements for receiving food stamps, failed May 18, 2018, in the House of Representatives. The cartoonist's homepage, freep.com/opinion/mike-thompson Mike Thompson, Detroit Free Press